The Role of Verbal Conditional
Discriminations in Intraverbal Behavior
Mark L. Sundberg
(Pleasanton Unified School District)
&
Lisa Hale
(Seattle, WA)
Conditional Discriminations
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Conditional discrimination: “A discrimination in which
reinforcement of responding during a stimulus depends on
(is conditional on) other stimuli” (Catania, 1998, p. 382)
Conditional discrimination: “When the nature or extent of
operant control by a stimulus condition depends on some
other stimulus condition” (Michael, 1993, p. 14)
Conditional Discriminations
Extensive behavioral research on conditional discriminations (CDs)
Most of it involves matching-to-sample tasks consisting of nonverbal
CDs (e.g., Saunders & Spradlin, 1989)
Some of it involves verbal stimuli and nonverbal response (receptive
discriminations) (e.g., Kelly, Green, & Sidman, 1998)
However, there is very little behavioral research on verbal
conditional discriminations and verbal responses (intraverbal
behavior)
Catania (1998) provides some conceptual direction with his analysis
of how a verbal context alters the evocative effect of other verbal
stimuli via conditional discriminations
Verbal Conditional
D
Discriminations (VC )
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What constitutes a verbal conditional discrimination and an
intraverbal response?
Two components of a verbal stimulus where one verbal stimulus
alters the evocative effect of the second verbal stimulus, and
collectively they evoke a differential intraverbal response
Skinner (1957) calls this a “compound verbal stimulus,” but does
not use the term “conditional discrimination” or its definition
Antecedent
Response
Verbal SD1 + Verbal SD2
Intraverbal Response
Verbal Conditional
D
Discriminations (VC )
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Examples...
Antecedent
Verbal SD1 + Verbal SD2
Define a mand
Exemplify a mand
Define a tact
Exemplify a tact
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VCD=VSD1 alters the evocative effect of VSD2 or vice versa
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Intraverbal Response
A type of verbal behavior...
Saying “car” as a function...
A type of verbal behavior...
Saying “car” as a function...
Verbal Conditional
D
Discriminations (VC )
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More complex examples...
Antecedent
Intraverbal Response
VSD1 + VSD2 + VSD3
Define a disguised mand
Define a magical mand
Define a self-mand
Define an autoclitic mand
A response controlled by...
A mand that cannot be...
A mand where the speaker...
A type of secondary verbal...
VSD1 + VSD2 + VSD3 + VSD4
Define a manipulative autoclitic mand
Exemplify a quantitative autoclitic tact
A type of secondary...
A type of secondary…
Teaching Intraverbal Behavior to
Children with Autism
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Children with autism have a difficult time acquiring intraverbal
behavior
Beyond simple intraverbals (“A kitty says...”), most intraverbal
responses are controlled by VCDs.
For example...
“Name a food”
“Name a hot food”
‘Name a breakfast food”
“Name a sweet food”
“What did you do today at school?”
Current Study
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Is there a general sequence of increasingly complex VCDs that can be
used for intraverbal assessment and intervention?
When are typically developing children successful at these
discriminations?
51 typical children and 18 children with autism served as participants
Ages ranged from 17 months old to 10 1/2 years old
Two 80-question intraverbal assessments were designed with
increasingly complex verbal discriminative stimuli and VCDs
The first assessment presented a wide range of IV tasks, while the
second assessment specifically focused on a variety of VCDs
Parents and classroom staff administered the assessment
Intraverbal Assessment: Level 7: Multiple SDs
with Prepositions, Adverbs, & Negation
Verbal S D
What do you eat with?
What animal moves slow?
Tell me something that is not a food
What do you write on?
Where do you talk quietly?
What is something you can't wear?
What do you sit at?
What is between the blankets and the bed?
What animal goes fast?
What's something that is not a musical instrument?
Score Response
Examples of the Types
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of VC s Assessed
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WH questions (e.g., What vs, Who vs. When, etc.)
Noun-noun (e.g., Friday, Saturday...vs. Sunday, Saturday...)
Noun-verb (e.g., animal that flies...vs. vehicle that flies...)
Verb-preposition (e.g., you write with... vs. you write on...)
Preposition-noun (e.g., under a house vs. above a house)
Adjective-noun (e.g., big animal vs. little animal)
Adverb-noun (e.g., fast animal vs. slow animal)
Multiple component CVDs (e.g., What goes on a race track and has wheels? vs.
...has legs)
Negation (e.g., Something that is not a musical instrument)
Time concepts (e.g., What day come before Wednesday? vs. ...after Wednesday)
Typical Children Age and Scores on
the IV Assessment
T ypical Children Intraverbal
Assessment Scores
80
IV Score
Age in Months and Intraverbal Score
70
60
50
40
Age in Months
30
20
10
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0
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2 3
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7 8
9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28
Children
Error Analysis of the Typical Children’s
Intraverbal Behavior and VCDs
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1 ½ year olds
Generally no IV behavior
2 year olds
Minimal intraverbal behavior, no VCDs
Some song fill-ins; lots of echoic; no WH answers (except name)
Error Analysis of the Typical Children’s
Intraverbal Behavior and VCDs
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2 1/2 year olds
Some simple intraverbal behavior, minimal VCDs
Frequent echoic responding (e.g., Knife fork and... evoked Fork and;
What can you wear? evoked What can you wear)
When some intraverbal control was demonstrated, often simple IV
relation, no conditional discriminations, the last, or prominent
word was the source of stimulus control (e.g., A dog, cat and monkey
are all... evoked Jumping on the bed)
Rote responses were evident. What day is today? ... Rainy (when it
was sunny)
Error Analysis of Typical Children’s
Intraverbal Behavior and VCDs
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3-year olds
Well established basic intraverbal repertoire, 100s of IV relations
But verbal conditional discrimination errors were prevalent
(e.g., What do you smell with? evoked Poopies; What do you find on a
playground? evoked Outside)
Most “WH” questions causes problems (e.g., When do you sleep? evoked In a big
girl bed)
Problems with verbs, prepositions, adjectives, adverbs in VCDs (e.g., What grows
on a tree? evoked birds; you write on... evoked Crayons)
Unable to respond to negation, time, personal information (beyond first name e.g.,
What is your last name? evoked Katie)
Two causes of errors: VCDs & complexity of each word (e.g., most 3 year old
children did not know what a “vehicle” was, or were able to tact “last”)
Error Analysis of Typical Children’s
Intraverbal Behavior and VCDs
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3 1/2 year olds
Still emitted echoic responses when no intraverbal occurred
Verbal conditional discrimination errors were very common with
harder words (e.g., What animal moves slow? evoked fast)
Negation in a VCD was major problem: What can’t you wear?
evoked jacket
Still having problems with verbs, prepositions, adjectives, adverbs in
VCDs (e.g., What do you smell with? evoked Pizza)
Problems with multiple component VCDs (e.g., Can you tell me a
vehicle that flies? evoked Bird)
Problems with time concepts (e.g., What meal is before lunch?
evoked Bananas)
Error Analysis of Typical Children’s
Intraverbal Behavior and VCDs
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4 year olds
Verbal conditional discrimination errors were still common, (e.g., When do you eat
dinner? evoked At the table; Where do you go to school? evoked Play)
But VCDs are clearly getting stronger (e.g., Who takes you to school? evoked
Nobody, but I need my backpack)
Problems with VCD intraverbal yes-no questions (e.g., Is a banana a fruit? evoked
Yes and Is a banana a vegetable? evoked Yes)
“Not” continued to be a problem for most kids (e.g., Tell me something that is not
a musical instrument evoked Drum)
Other problems include time concepts, WH questions, multiple component VCDs
(e.g., What goes on a race track and has wheels? evoked Train)
Error Analysis of Typical Children’s
Intraverbal Behavior and VCDs
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5 year olds
Much better at VCDs. Some 5 year olds had near perfect scores
However, they still problems with WH questions (Who takes you to school?
evoked bus)
Before and after, time concepts (What day is before Wednesday? evoked Thursday)
Almost everybody missed What day is today? including the five year olds
The words different, can’t, & not as verbal stimuli produced errors for many kids.
Funny Intraverbal Responses:
“Kids say the darnedest things”
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“What can you kick?” ... “We only kick balls”
“What do you write on?” ... “We only write on paper”
“What day is it? ... “Football day (Sunday)”
“What do you do with soap” ... “In my mouth”
“What’s in the kitchen?” ... “Lot’s of junk”
“Where do you sit” ... “In the time-out chair”
Intraverbal and VCD Assessment
Results for Children with Autism
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18 children served as participants
Most were from PUSD
Ages ranged from 37 months old to 10 1/2 years
old.
Classroom staff administered the assessment
Children with Autism Age and Scores
on the Intraverbal Assessment
Children with Autism
Intraverbal Assessment Scores
13 0
12 0
Age in Months and Intraverbal Score
11 0
Age in Months
10 0
90
80
70
60
IV Score
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30
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10
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0
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Children
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Typical Children Age and Scores on
the Intraverbal Assessment
T ypical Children Intraverbal
Assessment Scores
80
IV Score
Age in Months and Intraverbal Score
70
60
50
40
Age in Months
30
20
10
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9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28
Children
Error Analysis of the Children with
Autism’s Intraverbal Behavior
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The children with autism made the same types of errors as typical
children who scored at their level
Verbal conditional discriminations were hard for all children
especially those involving “WH” questions (e.g., Where do you bake
cookies? evoked Mommy; What do you smell in the oven? evoked
Flower; Where do you buy food? evoked Apples)
Rote responding was more obvious, and more firmly established
Echoic responses more frequent
Negative behavior higher with increasing complexity of the verbal
stimulus
Conclusions
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Most intraverbal responding involves verbal conditional discriminations
Typical language development can serve as an important guide for curriculum
development for children with autism
A functional analysis of the verbal errors made by typical children with VCDs
can help us understand the errors made by children with autism
Children with autism had the same problems with VCDs and made the same
intraverbal errors as typical children who scored at their level
There is very little behavior research on VCDs and their relation to intraverbal
behavior
VCDs are an excellent, exciting, and greatly needed area for empirical research
Existing conditional discrimination research can serve as a guide for VCD
research (e.g., Saunders & Spradlin, 1989)
Panel Questions
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What is the difference between:
Conditional discrimination
Compound stimulus control
Multiple control
Joint control
When was the term “conditional discrimination” first introduced into the
behavior vernacular?